


Mass Effect 1 - Beginnings

by Ulfbrandt



Series: Mass Effect, hope lost [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:41:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27306475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ulfbrandt/pseuds/Ulfbrandt
Summary: A deeply scarred man, John Shepard has garnered a reputation for surviving the odds, he's hoping for a way out until the weight of the Galaxy comes crashing down on him. Will he make it out this time, or will the pieces that are tenuously held together come flying apart?
Relationships: Male Shepard/Tali'Zorah nar Rayya
Series: Mass Effect, hope lost [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1993663





	1. Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> So, this will be part 1 of 3, covering the events of Mass Effect 1 to 3. I will be drawing inspiration from Alan Dean Foster's-The Damned trilogy, Alistair Reynold's-Revelation Space series so it will have a big smattering of HFY! But I will be keeping mostly to cannon with some minor deviation in 1 and 2 and dialogue changes. It's based off my canon infiltrator, colonist background and sole survivor, but I will also add the Lion of Elysium too. I really want to delve into Shepard's PTSD, survivors guilt etc, so it's gonna get dark in places. I hope you enjoy!

** Beginnings **

"They're coming Johnny, get the fuck out of here, the shuttle is 5 clicks south, you can make it!" The shadow yelled at him, "Come on son, you need to move, your sister is at home, get to her" Another urged him on "No matter what happens, I love you son, never forget that" With a roar a Thresher Maw burst through the ground, swallowing him and the shadows whole.

John Shepard woke with a start, his head smacking the inside of his sleeper pod "fuck sake" he grumbled to himself. His nightmares had been bleeding into one for a while now, a tableau of horror that never left him. Sometimes they would quiet down for a bit, but they were never gone. He let out a deep sigh, knowing any attempts at getting back to sleep would be futile, and checked his chrono: _0400, fuck, need coffee, lots of coffee_. John opened his pod, on the hunt for his precious caffeine. 10 more hours and they would be at Eden Prime. A shakedown run supposedly for new, state of the art ship on which he had been posted. _Why the hell is a Spectre on a shakedown run?_ He snorted to himself. He hated being left in the dark, good people died when that happened. He shook the dark thoughts that threatened to swamp him from his mind, and opened his prize, a can of energy drink. He also opened his omnitool.

SEARCH: Eden Prime

RESULTS:

**_OPPORTUNITY AWAITS ON EDEN PRIME:_ **

**_ALL SKILLS AND TRADES REQUIRED ON HUMANITY'S NEW GARDEN OF EDEN_ **

John scrolled through pages of adds, promises of adventure, fortune and stability. All useless, until he found something that might be useful:

_ **EDEN PRIME:** _

_Eden Prime, a beautiful garden planet and Humanity's first colony, stands as a symbol of Humanity's ability to adapt and function in a greater galactic society. With Prothean ruins, lush forests and even climate, Eden Prime boasts a thriving agricultural industry and an ever expanding population of currently 3.5 million thriving Human inhabitants._

So, pretty much as he thought _._ No need for a top secret stealth frigate, an N7 special forces soldier and also a Turian SPECTRE. _Something fucky is going on here_ he thought to himself. 

John walked into the painfully slow elevator, down to the cargo hold and armoury. _Mind as well do gear checks_. He set down his Shotgun, a Piranha, his M8 Avenger and his M97 Viper sniper rifle on the bench and placed his drink down safely out the way, John sat down and stretched eliciting the pops from his vertebrae he needed. _Fuck it_ he thought to himself and fished a crumpled carton of cigarettes out of a pocket. He was meant to have quit ages a go, smoking didn't have anywhere near the dangers it had in the past, but it was still generally frowned upon. He lit it and got to work on his gear, cleaning and inspecting each part, making sure the extended barrels he had installed on his guns were still solid, that they unfolded smoothly and everything solidly clicked into place. He also double checked his "Active Camouflage", colloquially known as a combat cloak was functioning properly, with some tinkering he had managed to double it's 30 second active time. He was no engineer but he would be damned if he let anyone else mess with his gear. _Self sufficiency is God_ , the words of his N7 mentor, Alec Ryder were with him as he worked. He checked the attachment points for the 3 point sling on his assault rifle, it was an anachronism but a large portion of Humanity's special forces opted for good old fashioned webbing over the maglock attachment points, it was hard to lose your gun with a sling. 

**The Start Of A Long Road**

John splashed water on his face _A SPECTRE, they want me to be a SPECTRE?!_ He stared at his reflection, at the huge scar that ran from his right temple, bisected his lips and carried on to the left side of his chin. He frowned _There has to be other more suitable people. Didn't even ask if I wanted it, I fucking hate being volunteered. and then there's the Prothean beacon, and whatever the fuck that ship was._ His thoughts went back to the immense dreadnought hovering over an honest to God Prothean beacon, the panicked soldier begging for help, from them, from anyone who might be listening, to the look of complete shock on his Captain's face, Anderson, a normally stoic and confident man for as long as Shepard had known him looked worried, and as far as he could tell mirrored by the closed mandibles of their Turian guest, the SPECTRE Nihlus who was meant to be his mentor "What the hell have you gotten yourself into Johnny boy?" He sighed to himself.

He left the head, and stepped into the elevator, he inhaled slowly, and exhaled, a trick Doc Chakwas, who who he was surprised to find onboard had showed him after Akuze, to calm himself, to stop his thoughts racing. He walked up to his locker, pulling out his armour, running his hands over each piece, a good luck ritual that wasn't even aware he had developed until it was pointed out to him, and got suited, he checked his cloak again, blinking out of view and a minute later he reappeared. He attached his Piranha and Viper to their maglocks and slung his assault rifle, it resting across his chest.

The door to the elevator rolled down and Jenkins, a very green, very enthusiastic recruit walked out _gonna have to keep an eye on him, idiot is liable to get himself blown away if he's not careful_ John thought to himself, Jenkins was followed by Staff Sergeant Kaiden Alenko, who had passed the Sentinel program, combat medic, offensive biotics and some limited Combat Engineer training, he was quiet and kept to himself mostly, which John had decided was alright by him. As they were getting suited and loaded the elevator opened again and Anderson and Nihlus strolled out.

"Jenkins, Alenko, Shepard" Anderson addressed them "The Normandy is setting down in a clearing 6 clicks south east of the beacon excavation, as of now we have an unknown number of hostiles, their interest seems to be the beacon, you are weapons free, assume hostile first contact and act accordingly but check your fire, there are a lot of civilians and one platoon of Marines in your area of operation" Anderson informed them, his gaze falling on Jenkins, the green recruit,

Nihlus stepped up now "Shepard, you are taking lead on this, I will be moving ahead and I will relay any intelligence gathered to you, this is one of many missions we will be working together, I will be shadowing you and providing assistance only when needed" The cargo ramp opened in a clearing surrounded by rocks and before John could say anything, Nihlus was gone.

"Shepard" Anderson said, stopping him for a moment "Do Humanity proud".


	2. Eden Prime

**Eden Prime**

John grabbed Jenkins' holo tags and logged the coordinates of his body. "They cut right through his shields, Commander, what the hell was that?!" John turned too Alenko, taking a few deep breaths "No idea Alenko, I've logged his position for pickup, that's all we can do for him now".

_A cluster fuck, this mission has turned into a cluster fuck, if I had been quicker, if I had been 1 second quicker Jenkins would be here_ "What are your orders commander" John turned to Kaiden "We have a mission Staff Sergeant, we move on, sitmap (the tactical overview situation map, linked into a soldiers HUD) shows this path leads to some prefabs, we have to go, this way" he pointed off tothe left "eyes peeled, stick to cover". They moved forwards together, John using his Viper to scan ahead "I see the prefabs, there's some kind of spike things scattere-" John stopped mid sentence, watching in horror as two bipedal synthetic forms dragged a colonist over to a collapsed spike, and placed him on top, then the inner portion rose up, impaling the unlucky man "Nihlus" John opened up a comm link "Nihlus, contact, some kind of synthetic platforms, we ran into some drones, we lost Jenkins" a moment later the Turian's flanged voice responded "copy that commander, I think they might be geth, going comms quiet, out" John moved forward into cover, hand up in a balled fist telling Kaiden to hold his position. He moved forward, signalling Kaiden to move into his previous cover "Right, we have to get through those bastards Alenko, I have 4 in sight, I'm going to engage and move round right, you take any target of opportunity" John activated his cloak a 3 round burst taking one of the machines, the remaining 3 turned as one in the direction of the gunfire, John reappeared in cover, sighting down his Viper he disappeared again, another 3 round burst destroying another, Kaiden used his biotics, the remaining 2 Geth floating ineffectually as John dispatched them.

They waited a moment, satisfied they weren't going to run into anymore of the machines, John walked over to the strange spikes motioning over "Alenko, you ever heard of Geth?" John said as he inspected the morbid contraptions. "Yes commander, a bit, some kind of AI created by accident by the Quarians, they haven't been seen in like 200 years" John sighed "Great, we have an apparent army of Terminators after the Prothean beacon" Kaiden looked at him confused "Terminators, Alenko? Don't you watch old films?" They were interrupted by the spikes withdrawing, John and Kaiden scrambled back as the colonists, having apparently been altered into some kind of technological abominations charged them, John grabbed his Piranha, opening fire on the strange creatures, blowing one clean in half and blowing the head off another, Kaiden managed to biotically throw the one that had launched itself on to him, trying to shred the Marine with claws. "Well, fuck me sideways" John growled "It just keeps getting better"

**Ashley Williams**

She ran forwards, running from the machines that had killed the rest of the squad, she fired her assault rifle behind her frantically, spotting some rocks, she sprinted desperately for cover, one of the machines chasing her opened fire, her shields stopped the shot penetrating her armour but the force of the impact sent her sprawling forwards, her assault rifle flying from her hand, she scrambled into cover, it was only a matter of time now, they would get her sooner her rather than later.

John held up his hand, using his scope to find the source of the gunfire, he spotted a flash of pink and white _No mistaking the godawful Phoenix armour_ "Friendly Alenko, getting flanked, double time" He fired his Viper taking out one of the machines and started sprinting forward, he dropped his rifle and grabbed his Piranha, activating his cloak he ran through the middle of the 2 other Geth that had caught up to the one he just downed, he was behind them as his cloak deactivated, opening fire he reduced the machines to scrap as a an apparent straggler rounded the corner, Kaiden fired off an overload from his omnitool, causing the machine to freeze in place with a blue spark, John turned and fired, the last one down.

Ashley, wasn't entirely sure what the hell just happened, one moment she was praying and apologising to her squad, and the next there was gunfire and an N7 saving her life. The N7 walked up to her holding out a hand to help her to her feet "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, sir" John took off his helmet "Commander Shepard, sitrep soldier". John appraised the soldier, clearly agitated, not that he blamed her _I really hate that damn Phoenix armour, she looks like she can handle herself though_ "No idea sir, we were helping the archaeological team secure and move the beacon to the loading Port, when we got there all hell broke loose. Damn flashlights killed the rest of my squad" John couldn't help but feel for her, he had been there himself "We're a man down Gunny, we need to get to the port, you got an alternate route? We could use the extra gun" Ashley picked up her Vindicator "Yes sir, we can cut through the dig and skirt around" John stopped for a moment "Williams, no need for the formality, lead the way".

**Nihlus**

Nihlus, keeping low, moved forward, cresting the rise of a hill, focusing through his binoculars he scanned the loading area _none of those damned Geth, thank the spirits_ , _wait, what the..._ He spotted a Turian, of all things, standing in the loading area, he made his way down, pistol sighted on the figure "Identify yourself" the figure turned, no sign of surprise, or shock, he noted, he however, flared his mandibles in surprise "Saren? What are you doing here? There's Geth everywhere" _This just keeps getting stranger_. Saren strode over to him "Nihlus, the council knew I was in the area, the alliance requested help, I was sent". Nihlus' confusion only grew, no one had heard from Saren in a few years, it was largely thought he had retired "But-" Nihlus never got chance to ask his question.

"Williams" John called out "You have any idea what the Geth are doing to the colonists?" Shepard asked, as the last of the Husks, as he had designated the things, fell "No idea Shepard, all I know is they stick people on giant spikes then they turn into those things". John was looking around, scanning every one of the blue corpses with his omnitool when a prefab door opened, in a flash, he, Alenko and Williams trained their guns on the doors as, a scared voice called out "We're human, please don't shoot" a group of 5 colonists filed out "Thank you, oh god can you tell us what's happening?" One of them pleaded, John walked up to them "I was hoping you could tell us, what the hell happened here?" The apparent leader of the group held out his hand, shaking John's "Oh man, I don't know, we were working on the loading dock as the scientists moved the beacon, then that ship showed up, there was an ear splitting shriek and then the robots started dropping out the sky and killed damn near everyone" John frowned "loading dock? Is that how you get to the port?" The man stopped his pacing for a moment "Yes, but there's an army of those damned things between us and them, and a Turian that seems to be leading". John looked at Williams, who shrugged at his unvoiced question "Tell us about this Turian, Niko" He read the name on the man's work tag "I don't know man, all I know is he's mean as hell and seems to be leading the robots" John sighed "Right, Alenko and Williams move out, Williams I want you on point, lead us to the loading dock" BANG, a gunshot in the distance, seemingly from the dock spurred them on.

"Fuck" _FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK_ John swore out loud, and to himself, he was losing control of this situation, and now Nihlus was dead, apparently executed, and not from the plasma weapons on any of the Geth they had just dispatched. A loud hollow thump got the soldiers' attention, guns drawn a terrified dock worker came out hands up "Don't shoot, please don't shoot, I can tell you what happened to the Turian" John lowered his weapon as the man kept talking "There was another Bird, called him Saren, I think they knew each other, the one called Saren shot him in the back of the head" John wiped his hand down his face in irritation "Right, and how did you see it all and not got spotted?" The man, Cole, according to his name tag looked down in shame "I, I had a long shift, I got tired and went to sleep in the storage shed, I was woken up by the gunfire and stayed hidden..." John let out a small humourless chuckle and looked at the man "so, your laziness saved your ass" Before the man could reply, Geth opened fire.

John scrambled into cover, shoving Cole backwards as he did, he was followed by Williams and Alenko "Williams, big fucker on your left, concentrate fire, Alenko hit it with an overload" They opened fire on the massive black and gold Geth, bringing it down, it's reinforcements rushing forward, apparently unfazed by any thoughts of their own destruction "Williams hold position, engage anything below, give them something else to shoot at but don't do anything stupid, Kaiden on me" John barked his orders as he hefted his shotgun and engaged his cloak, moving into cover he started cutting down the Geth, Kaiden's biotics brought another of the massive gold and black ones stumbling to it's knees as John turned it to scrap with his assault rifle fire, his shotgun venting heat, these damn things were tough but they seemed to be getting sloppier the more they killed, he didn't really have time to give it any thought as Williams interrupted his musings "That's the tram Shepard, it leads to the dock"

**From Worse to Terrible**

Saren grabbed one of his Troopers "Secure the beacon for transport, plant the explosives, I want all evidence and this colony destroyed". He shook his head, the visions from the beacon were, troubling, his head throbbed in pain, flashes of brutality and war kept appearing. This ship he had found, had been right, whatever was coming, it couldn't be fought, subjugation or extinction it had told him, the choice was his. Not much of a choice he had thought, he boarded, gazing out impassively as the colony disappeared from view beneath him.

John stepped off the cargo tram, assault rifle raised up as he and his squad moved forward, until he spotted a large device about the size of a refrigerator, except on it's side "Fuck, Alenko, we have a bomb, a big one, you defuse it, Williams and I will cover you" He opened his omnitool and set his scanner for electromagnetic waves, his gut feeling was right "EM scan has pinged 4 more, Williams on me" Ashley and John walked up a ramp, slowly, and dove into cover as plasma fire erupted around them "Shepard" Alenko called out on "started to defuse, but it set off a timer, 5 minutes aaaaaand got it" John's Avenger chattered, his and Williams combined fire destroying the enemy ahead "Alenko, move up, keep your head down, more targets, another explosive to our left" John and Williams moved forward, the fighting intensifying, John stayed in cover, waiting for his shields to recharge _keep your head Johnny, you almost bit it back there_ John thought to himself as the last bomb was defused, the last of the Geth turned into twisted scrap.

The Squad moved onto the dock, the beacon standing before them some 6 metres tall, Williams walked up to it, the beacon apparently proximity activated started dragging her towards it with green tendrils of energy "SHEPARD!" John didn't have time to think, he covered the distance in the blink of an eye, wrapping his arms around Ashley's waist he heaved her away with all his strength, the coils of energy latched onto him, great coils of green lifting him up into the air. John screamed in pain, his head felt like it was exploding as images of butchery, flesh spliced with wires and beings twisted and transformed filled his head, the skies darkened with gigantic forms like the ship that appeared over Eden Prime, and at the end a large, angular wedge shaped head filled his vision and commanded " **PREPARE** **!** " Then it all went black.

Ashley and Kaiden dove to the ground as the beacon, after lifting the Commander exploded, showering them with shards of smooth black stone, John was thrown back violently, cracking his head hard on a storage container, blood pouring from his nose, Kaiden's panicked voice yelled into his comms "Normandy, need emergency evac now, Shepard is down!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bird - Somewhat xenophobic slang for a Turian
> 
> I hoped you liked! All comments welcomed, trying to work in a Lovecraftesque feel to my writing, I think it fits


End file.
